Seymour's Your Man
by Littleshopofaudrey
Summary: Seymour and Mushnik defend Audrey from a rude customer.


It was, as always, a mind-numbingly vacant day in Mushnik's Flower Shop. The titular Mr. Mushnik was in his usual position, where he had been for almost three hours; newspaper in hand and bottom on a chair.

However, his two employees had had a much more eventful morning. Audrey shared a joke that she'd heard at The Gutter the night before, although she didn't tell Seymour where she'd heard it, and he watched in fascination when she could barely complete it for laughing. Seymour taught Audrey the meanings behind certain colored roses and she admired both his intelligence and passion for all things botanical. They laughed, they shared stories and in those moments, life outside of the shop didn't matter. They felt like the only two people in the world.

Suddenly, the dust-covered bell hanging over the door rang which caused all three inhabitants to drop what little they had been doing and look professional.

Ever the salesman, Mr. Mushnik rushed straight over to the customer. A fairly attractive man in his thirties who's appeal was dampened by the traces of whiskey on his breath. He attempted to give off a put together demeanour but his inebriation was clear due to his slight slur in his speech and stumble in his walk.

"Good afternoon, Sir." Mushnik extended his hand and was met with a firm shake. "Welcome to my flower shop! We have everything you could possibly want or need. So, what is it that you want? Or need? Because we'll have it!" His over enthusiastic attitude was more off-putting than it was charismatic. Both Audrey and Seymour couldn't help but snigger at the falseness of Mushnik; his behaviour was truly laughable.

The potential customer looked around the shop until finally something caught his eye.

He slowly extended his index finger and pointed it towards Audrey. "Can you help me?" He slurred while he eyed her up, unbeknownst to her but certainly not to the other two men in the room.

"Sure! What can I do for you?" She beamed, feeling a little special that someone wanted her professional advice.

"Well, that's a question with a lot of possible answers and outcomes." He replied dripping with euphemism which apparently went right over her head. For a girl who had grown up on Skid Row, she was still unbelievably naive. Mushnik rolled his eyes at the man's blatant flirting while Seymour looked on in confusion. He was entirely sure of what was going on but he knew that he didn't like the way this man was looking at Audrey. "Roses seem good enough,'' he continued.

"Are they for your wife or girlfriend? Seymour was just telling me that red roses represent love, that would be so romantic!"

"No, no, no. I'm not taken...yet." He raised his eyebrows. "They're for my...sister. For her birthday." He replied as he subtly slipped a ring off of his left hand and into his pocket. Again, this was all noticed by the other men in the room.

"Oh, how about yellow? I know that they mean friendship and happiness!" She glanced towards Seymour and grinned; in response, he nodded and gave her a thumbs up, touched that she had really listened to him.

"Yellow works. But...they're all the way up there." He nodded towards the gathered yellow roses that sat atop a shelf.

"That's no problem, I'll get the ladders! I'll just be a minute!" She scuttled off excitedly, amazed that she seemed to be securing a deal. She felt a twinge of pride, something she didn't feel very often, if ever.

"Your sister, huh?" Mushnik quizzed and the man just replied with a stone faced glance. His businessman-like demeanour was long gone. As Audrey returned, Mushnik decided he no longer wanted to deal with the sale and went back to scanning the Skid Row Herald. However, Seymour remained fixated on the scene before him. He could sense a strange vibe and did not want to leave Audrey alone with the odd stranger.

Audrey gave the man one last smile before she ascended up the ladders. She took the bunch from in front of her eyes and asked, "Are these okay?"

"Hmm, I kinda like the ones further over." He nodded towards them with his head and smiled an almost perverse smile.

"These?" She motioned to the ones just to the right of where she had originally started.

"No, further. I think you're gonna have to really stretch for them." He emphasised the "really" and tried not to giggle as he directed the salesgirl.

Audrey squeaked a little and extended one of her legs backwards in an attempt to reach the yellow roses. Unknown to her, the man had manoeuvred himself directly beneath her and proceeded to glance up her dress, revealing more than she knew in her current stance.

When Seymour realized just what was going on and his jaw practically hit the floor. He had never felt rage like it, watching some creep disrespect Audrey in that way? As good and kind as she was? A sense of heroism overcame him.

Seymour quickly moved over to the ladders, averting his eyes from where the man's eyes were fixed. "Audrey, get down from there. Please." That was the first time he'd ever told her what to do yet he managed to do so in a soft, unassuming manner.

"Huh?" She asked, as she began to climb down. She wasn't sure of the exact reason why he was telling her to do so but she trusted him.

"What's your problem, spectacles?" The man began to square up to the much shorter Seymour. With that, Mr. Mushnik's eyes were peeled away from his newspaper for a rare second time that afternoon.

"I-I saw what you were doing and that wasn't right. I think you should apologize to the lady." Seymour answered back, trying to maintain a confident posture. Audrey internally blushed at Seymour's description of her as a "lady."

"You!" Seymour started then lowered his voice when he remembered that he didn't want to shout his next sentence. "You looked up her dress." Audrey's eyes started from Seymour to the man with a combined look of shock and hurt. Mr. Mushnik rose to his feet but did not yet approach the trio.

"Calm down, Lancelot. You're telling me you don't hop on the chance to bag a hot piece of ass when you can?" He shamelessly replied, as though Audrey was not even in the room. Seymour was at a loss for words and just began to stutter meaningless vowels as the man invaded his personal space more and more.

That was the breaking point. An almighty crash was heard as Mr. Mushnik slammed the end of a nearby broom into the floor. Without any hesitation, he squared up to the stranger. "In this shop, I am the only one who gets to disrespect my employees. Now, get the hell out."

"Or what?" He snarled, clearly unphased by the older man.

Mushnik said nothing and responded instead by breaking the broom in two over his bent knee. A flicker of worry crossed the stranger's face.

"She ain't worth it anyway." He laughed and the dust-covered bell rang once more, signalling his exit.

The three workers stood together in shock. "You're buying me a new broom, Krelborn." Mushnik said, meaning every word. He went back to his newspaper, hoping to finally finish the article he had been trying so long to. Before Audrey could say anything, Seymour retreated to the basement.

Audrey went after him, her heels making a rhythmic sound as she flopped down the stairs to find Seymour pacing as he muttered "stupid" under his breath.

He cast his eyes upward when he noticed her standing beside him. "I just froze up there, like a complete idiot. Audrey, what you must think of me. Mr. Mushnik is always telling me to toughen up. Be a man. Act like a man." Little did either of them know, in a few short months, Audrey would be declaring Seymour as _her_ man. "I-I thought I was doing the right thing, I-"

She cut him off with a lingering kiss on the cheek. "You were my hero. Thank you, Seymour." He turned a very obvious shade of red and touched his cheek, letting his fingertips trace where her soft lips had just been. "Now, come on. We have a lot of customers left to serve." She quipped, receiving a hearty laugh from Seymour.

They didn't have another customer for the rest of the night but they all agreed, they'd had their fair share for that day.


End file.
